The Weibo war among the various companies was in full swing, turning into a real dogfight.
This brought a beaming smile to Chen Yizhou of Xiaonei.com.
Xiaonei.com had always been suppressed by Renren.com.
Now that Renren.com was investing many resources into Weibo, didn't that mean Xiaonei.com's spring was coming?
However, he soon realized something was wrong, and even became increasingly panicked.
Xiaonei.com's registered users did not see the significant increase he had imagined; instead, there was even a slight decline.
For this reason, the entire senior management of Xiaonei.com held frantic meetings to analyze the causes.
Ultimately, they analyzed a reason that sent shivers down everyone's spine!
Could it be...
Are SNS social networking sites going to be eliminated by the tide of history?
But that shouldn't be the case.
Haven't foreign social media like Facebook been doing very well?
Those with opposing views stated that domestic and foreign internet ecosystems are different, and foreign experiences cannot be simply copied.
Otherwise, how could it be explained that all internet giants and major portal websites were desperately trying to squeeze into this race?
And how could it be explained that Renren.com, their biggest rival, was rushing in with an almost do-or-die, make-or-break attitude?
"How about we do it too?"
Someone suggested after thinking.
"So many giants have entered the arena. It would take us another two or three months from development to launch. By then, it will probably be too late."
"But if we don't, and if SNS is eventually eliminated by the tide of history, can we only stand by and wait for death?"
Everyone fell silent.
This step was difficult to take; one wrong move would lead to eternal damnation.
Finally, Chen Yizhou made the decision:
"We cannot make a futile effort now. Instead of entering an unfamiliar race, it's better to develop a few more social games. If one becomes popular, we'll have a chance to go public."
...
Recently, the atmosphere within Renren.com had been much heavier than usual.
Chen Pingjiang spent almost half of his 24 hours a day at the company dealing with various official matters.
"Xiaonei.com has gone crazy recently, launching promotions in first-tier cities across the country, with advertisements plastered everywhere."
Chen Pingjiang said with a smile,
"Chen Yizhou is anxious. He hopes we'll be too busy with the Weibo war to pay attention to him, trying to stab us in the back."
Li Xi asked,
"Then how should we respond?"
"No response, let him make a fuss. Market share isn't something he can regain by just running ads. For now, we should still focus more energy on Weibo."
Wen Yan, a veteran employee, is currently responsible for the overall work of Weibo.
"Following Chairman Chen's instructions from the last meeting, Zou Yu and I have stopped inviting popular celebrities to join, but our competitors are still raising the stakes."
Since the last meeting, Chen Pingjiang and Sina, Tencent had started to take different approaches.
The Weibo under Chen Pingjiang's purview focused more on the internet ecosystem.
First, they supported grassroots popular accounts, such as: "Cold Joke Selection," "Weibo Funny Rankings," and "Global Oddities and Curiosities."
These jokes and general entertainment accounts attracted countless fans through a large amount of content that might not be high-brow but was very eye-catching, with some even publishing more than 100 posts daily.
After such operations, Renren Weibo's content was a notch higher than Sina and Tencent's.
Weibo had just been launched.
In reality, users mostly followed their idols or celebrities, and their operating habits were limited to commenting and reposting; not many people posted updates via Weibo.
This created a peculiar situation.
Everyone would come online, look at the celebrities they wanted to see, but with too few celebrity updates and no other content, they could only leave after viewing, resulting in very short dwell times.
In addition to supporting grassroots popular accounts, official government Weibo accounts at all levels in Dongjiang City had also been launched, and this trend was gradually spreading to other government agencies across the country.
Various news media also joined in.
This instantly established Renren Weibo's media attributes.
On the other side, Miao Bingwei continuously optimized Weibo, making it not only perform excellently on PC but also more comfortable to read on mobile.
Weibo hot search lists, popular Weibo recommendations, entertainment lists, news lists, and so on were all rolled out.
The difference in these operating methods had not yet created a huge contrast at the very beginning.
...…
"Hello, I'm looking for General Manager Wan Yuqian."
Yan Yan stood at the reception desk, curiously speaking to the front desk administrator.
"Hello, do you have an appointment?"
The front desk administrator only looked up at the visitor after finishing the last word.
When she clearly saw Yan Yan, the front desk exclaimed,
"Lady boss, what brings you here? Sister Wan is in the company; I'll take you over."
This was Yan Yan's first time coming to Renren.com as an intern, which was quite different from her previous visit as Chen Pingjiang's girlfriend, especially in terms of mindset.
Yan Yan ultimately did not follow her mother Li Yuhua's arrangements, but insisted on interning at Renren.com.
Chen Pingjiang expressed his refusal to this, but found it difficult to tell her directly not to come.
After seeing Yan Yan, Wan Yuqian blinked her eyes and said with a smile,
"Chairman Chen mentioned it to me last time, but I thought he was joking. You two really are, flaunting your affection even at the company."
Yan Yan waved her hand with a smile,
"No, no. I insisted on coming. I want to learn some experience in company operations."
"Hmm?"
Wan Yuqian wondered,
"Are you planning to start your own business later? With your Chen Pingjiang being so capable, do you still need to show your face?"
"For now, it's mainly about learning. As for the future, we'll see."
The reason Yan Yan came to intern at Renren.com was never to keep an eye on Chen Pingjiang or anything like that; she simply wanted to accumulate some operational management experience, to help Chen Pingjiang in the future.
When she followed Wan Yuqian to Chen Pingjiang's office, Chen Pingjiang was on the phone.
He waved at Yan Yan, then quickly said a few words and hung up.
"I just completed the onboarding for Yan Yan. How do you want to arrange her work?"
Wan Yuqian found it a bit amusing, thinking why she had to get involved in this young couple's affairs.
"Let her be my assistant for now. Have Guan Yifeng guide her, starting with organizing documents,"
Chen Pingjiang said after a moment of thought.
Guan Yifeng, standing nearby, immediately made a bitter face.
This was the lady boss!
What the hell could she learn from following him?
Who would dare to say, who could say?
But the big BOSS had already made the decision, so he had no say.
"Then, Manager Guan, please guide me a lot in the future,"
Yan Yan smiled at Guan Yifeng.
Guan Yifeng took a frightened step back, shaking his head like a rattle-drum:
"No, no. Lady boss, don't be so polite. Just tell me directly if you have any instructions."
After Wan Yuqian left, Guan Yifeng felt like a third wheel, a bit awkward, so he quickly found an excuse and slipped away as well.
"Does everyone think I'm acting a bit strange?"
Yan Yan asked after thinking for a moment.
Chen Pingjiang laughed inwardly, thinking it's good that you know you're a bit off, but he said,
"No, there's nothing strange at all."
"Oh, anyway, please treat me as a regular assistant. You can scold me if I make mistakes."
"How could I bear to?"
Chen Pingjiang said, but his eyes darted around, coming up with a mischievous idea.
"As my assistant, the most important thing is to understand various reports. Later, I'll have Guan Yifeng bring you all the company's documents and reports from its founding until now.
You can look at them first. If there's anything you don't understand, don't rush to ask anyone. First, search on Baidu and try to figure it out yourself. If you still don't understand after contemplating it, then you can ask me."
"Okay!"
Chen Pingjiang smiled as he watched Yan Yan's retreating back.
With so many business groups and departments in the company, there were an ocean of documents and reports.
It would be impossible for an outsider to understand all of them in less than ten days or so.
He hoped Yan Yan would retreat when faced with difficulty, and it would be best if she honestly went to intern at a newspaper office.
Having her wander around under his nose always felt quite dangerous; it was best not to let Ge Mengshi and Yan Yan meet.
News of the lady boss coming to work at the company spread like wildfire.
Although Yan Yan had come last time, it was just for a visit.
This time, however, she was coming for proper work, which had a very different meaning.
Many veteran employees who had joined more than a year ago had seen Yan Yan, but the newcomers from this autumn's recruitment didn't recognize her at all.
Soon, private groups of three to five people started chatting.
"I heard our lady boss is exceptionally beautiful?"
"Forget 'I heard.' I've seen quite a few women, you know, 'Bar Prince' isn't just a title for nothing, but I guarantee I've never seen any woman who could surpass the lady boss in appearance.
Of course, that's not the most important thing; what's most extraordinary about the lady boss is her temperament, ethereal and otherworldly, as if she doesn't belong to this world, with a cool detachment."
"Holy cow, boss, you're not describing the lady boss, but a fairy, right? Is it really that exaggerated?"
"Don't believe me? If you don't believe me, you'll know when you see her."
"..."
People are always curious.
After circulating for a while, many people felt an itch in their hearts, eager to see the legendary lady boss.
Meanwhile, Yan Yan was in the small office next to Chen Pingjiang's, watching Guan Yifeng and another young administrative assistant repeatedly bringing in various documents and reports.
Eventually, they completely filled the small desk, with the highest stack almost as tall as the monitor.
Guan Yifeng couldn't bear to watch anymore.
Chairman Chen was too ruthless.
What decent person would torment someone like this?
After reading through all these documents and reports, a person would probably go crazy.
But to his surprise, facing a mountain of information, Yan Yan's expression didn't change at all; she remained cool and composed.
Not long after, she quietly began to read by herself.
Ge Mengshi, working on the 15th floor of Huijin Building, was currently a bit distracted.
Mainly because she heard that the "lady boss" had come to intern at the company.
The feeling in her heart was very strange.
There was both the embarrassment of a mistress wanting to flee quickly after seeing the legitimate wife, and also the realization of wanting to take this opportunity to put some distance between herself and Chen Pingjiang.
When she was young, she was always competitive, only knowing how to study.
Later, she had no thoughts of falling in love; more accurately, no man had been able to leave a mark on her heart.
Chen Pingjiang was her first man.
Even though Ge Mengshi at this age wouldn't be as innocent and romantic as a young girl, she still had a beautiful feeling of being in love.
The only drawback was that their relationship had to be kept secret and seemed to have no future.
This made the feeling of "being in love" somewhat imperfect, casting a shadow over it.
They dared not shop or dine like normal couples, fearing that their relationship would be exposed.
To her, Chen Pingjiang was like a brilliant poppy.
She knew eating it would be poisonous, but she still couldn't resist.
After thinking for a long while, Ge Mengshi chuckled softly and shook her head.
When it was mealtime, Chen Pingjiang came to the small office next door, carrying four or five bento boxes.
He couldn't help but chuckle inwardly, looking at the mountain of documents piled on Yan Yan's desk.
"Come, come, let's eat first, then you can look at them later."
Chen Pingjiang hummed a tune as he opened the meal boxes one by one and arranged them on the coffee table.
However, Yan Yan didn't listen at all, still frowning and meticulously using her jade-like fingers to point at the text, reading line by line.
"Stop looking, the food will get cold if you keep staring,"
Chen Pingjiang urged.
Only then did Yan Yan reluctantly stand up and walk to the coffee table, taking a seat.
"Am I really stupid? Manager Guan must have had a smooth time reviewing these when he first joined, right?"
Yan Yan blinked repeatedly to relieve her eye discomfort.
Chen Pingjiang took a mouthful of rice and nodded,
"He was quite fast, but his major was relevant and he had work experience. If you find it too tiring, would you like to change positions?"
Yan Yan shook her head,
"No. Since I'm here, I have to do it well. I will work hard."
Chen Pingjiang scratched his head, looking at her determined, energetic expression.
"What's the point? You don't have to worry about food or clothing, yet you insist on coming to the company to work like an ox. Wouldn't it be much easier to intern at your mom's newspaper office, especially since you studied sports journalism?"
Upon hearing this, Yan Yan suddenly put down her chopsticks and said with some solemnity,
"You're moving too fast. I just want to catch up with you, to understand your work circle. Otherwise, we won't have any common topics in the future, and I won't know what you're talking about. I'm already a bit quiet and very introverted."
"Uh..."
Yan Yan's reaction was quite unexpected for Chen Pingjiang.
He hadn't expected that the usually confident Yan Yan would also feel a sense of crisis and be more willing to invest in their relationship.
"You're overthinking it. Your dad and mom are also in two different circles, and they chat plenty."
Yan Yan shook her head,
"It's different. That's the nature of my dad's job; many things he can't talk about. Besides, my mom is much more extroverted than I am."
Chen Pingjiang fell silent, watching Yan Yan slowly swallow her food with her cherry-red mouth, and suddenly felt a pang of heartache and guilt.
He was a bit of a workaholic and spent very little time with Yan Yan.
Seeing her twice a week was considered good, and each time they only spent three or four hours together at most.
This was completely different from other young couples who were inseparable and stuck together every day.
Although Yan Yan had a good personality and never complained, even when an urgent matter came up during dinner and Chen Pingjiang had to rush back to the company, she would smile and tell him to leave quickly, taking a taxi back herself.
But no matter what, as a young girl in her first relationship, she must also want her boyfriend to spend more time with her, right?
Chen Pingjiang thought.
(End of chapter)